This invention relates to shredded wheat biscuits, and in particular to shredded wheat biscuits havings an edible paste therein. The invention particularly relates to a paste spreader apparatus for locating edible paste on a bed of shredded wheat, atop which bed the edible paste is located, and atop which a second and final composite layer of shredded wheat is added prior to biscuit-forming steps including cutting of the layers into individual biscuits. The bed layer and composite layer each are usually formed of four or five individual wheat layers composed of wheat strands, as is well-known in the shredded wheat biscuit art.
It is conventional to supply a fluid, paste, or other substance having fluid-like properties under pressure from a supply to a nozzle, and to control the flow through the nozzles by means of valves. Furthermore, it is another well-known concept in the art to equalize flow from a common supply through individual nozzles by individually adjusting valves associated with each individual nozzle.
It is a problem in the art, however, when a paste formed of organic commestible or other material, such as raisin paste, strawberry paste, banana paste, blueberry paste, apricot pastes, or apple paste, among others, to provide straight and uniform extrudate paths from each nozzle fed by a common supply. This phenomenon is not yet clearly understood, but believed to be due to either a time-varying turbulent pattern formed during fluid flow, or to a type or organic "memory" which exhibits itself as erratic behavior in the flow path component transverse to the axis of the nozzle. In particular, it is a problem to extrude paste from a common supply through a plurality of nozzles so that the paste lies in uniformly and precisely located straight rows or lines while being deposited upon a moving bed, or while the nozzles move relative to a stationary bed or support. The moving bed in the food industry in usually supported by a conveyor belt or the like, with the nozzles being stationary over the moving bed. The moving bed atop the conveyor belt can be a bed of shredded wheat layers, usually four layers thick, which forms the lower half of what ultimately becomes a whole shredded-wheat biscuit.
It is also a problem in the art that, when several nozzles are supplied by a single header or supply, directionality of the paste extruded through the nozzles is not always dependent entirely upon the nozzle axis. Thus, conventional gate-type valves which are in common use cannot alter the flow path or pattern of extrudate from a nozzle, especially when such extrudate does not continuously flow in a direction colinear with the axis of the nozzle, as in the situation with pastes discussed above. This holds true despite attempts at perfecting nozzle design so that the nozzles have sharp outlet edges to prevent end effects of the nozzles from disturbing the paste flow.
It is therefore a problem in the art to provide a plurality of nozzles, supplied by a single supply source, which can precisely and consistently distribute paste extruded from the plurality of nozzles by using adjustable members or means, which can both control flow through individual nozzles as well as affect the direction of paste extruded through each of the nozzles, without re-locating, moving, or disturbing the nozzles themselves in any way. Thus a transverse component of flow to a nozzle axis has not been solved in the prior art by controlling a valve upstream of the nozzle. Many grains require different cooking times, different tempering times and different temperatures to obtain optimal flowability properties, shred strength, appearance, and the like. Accordingly, to produce a cereal product having a mixture of different types of cereal grains in each biscuit, it is preferable to separately process each type of grain and to then co-shred the grains. It is also possible to combine the separate grains by separately shredding the grains and then layering the shreds of different grains.